Hello dear readers, and welcome once again to my month-long series of mini-lists about some of my favorite things about summer. Already I've already discussed some of my favorite tabletop games that I enjoy on a hot summer day in, but today I'm going to be covering one of my favorite topics in the world: movies.

And in this day and age, what says summer movies more than superhero movies? So yes, today's list, dear readers, is all about...

MATT'S 10 FAVORITESUPERHERO MOVIES

Now I hear you asking, "Hey, Matt, 10 movies isn't a mini-list, that's just a list, what gives?" Well, imaginary reader, I'm glad you asked. I'm doing 10 entries on this list because in this day and age, there are two types of superhero movies: Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and everyone else. Unfortunately for the "everyone else" set, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is kind of dominating these days, with their reliable, if usually cookie-cutter, blend of action and wit. So, for the sake of fairness, I've broken this up into two mini lists of five entries each, five from the MCU, and five from everyone else. So first off, let's hit Marvel:

MCU FILMS

5. Thor

Are there better films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Undoubtedly, but the charm of Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder in need of some humbling and the layered portrayal of Loki from Tom Hiddleston will always make this an underrated favorite of mine. Also, gotta love the out of nowhere choice of Kenneth Branagh to direct.

4. Iron Man 2

It's possible my wife and I are the only two people who actually like this movie, and I'm fine with that. Taking a darker look at what being a superhero will do to you without losing the Marvel charm, this one may not be one of the most fun Marvel's done, but it's always been a favorite.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy

And from the last film's darkness we go to probably the out and out silliest of the Marvel films. There are so many reasons this one shouldn't have worked, but again, a solid ensemble, a crazy script for them to work off of, and charm to spare (plus a killer soundtrack), make this one of the greats. Keep the fast forward button handy for the villain, though. You can completely skip over his plotline and not miss much.

2. Ant-Man

A strong contender for my # 1, but it's still new so I can't go that far just yet, this is some of the most fun I have ever had at a movie theatre. It's enjoyable from start to finish, witty, and not bogged down too heavily by all the mythologizing that Marvel's famous for. Extra points for making ants (my personal archnemesis at home) cute, and for being a lot better than it should have been given it's troubled production. And hilarious. It's very much that too.I want there to be a sequel to this so we can see Evangeline Lilly as Wasp, because her character is awesome.1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

See, Marvel tends to work best when they're doing genres that aren't superhero movies (i.e. Guardians as space opera, Ant-Man as a heist film), and they swung for the fences by making the second Captain America film a 70's conspiracy film, complete with Robert Redford, and scored perhaps their best film. Dealing with matters of trust and government oversight, as well as the personal issues that would arise for a man out of time by more than 70 years, it's one of Marvel's darkest while still maintaining that fun that separates these movies from DC.Extra points to them pulling off Falcon as one of the coolest new heroes on screen.

THE "EVERYONE ELSE" SUPERHERO FILMS

5. Unbreakable

Ah, back in the day when the name M. Night Shyamalan was something to get excited over. This understated, weird, slow little take on the superhero movie is perhaps too meditative, and would have better made a 15 minute origin story for a much more impressive movie, but it's got some interesting deconstructive points even with its flaws I've always liked.

4. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

The DC Animated Universe is the gold standard in non-print superhero fiction. With deep, adult storylines, solid writing and amazing voice casts, it comes about as close as anything to being a truly definitive superhero adaptation. The strange coda of all these connected series' is a short-lived series called Batman Beyond, about an aged Batman training his newest protégé in the future. The series never really had an ending, but the direct-to-DVD followup, Return of the Joker, does it pretty well. The Batmen go up against Gotham's most dangerous criminal, back from the dead, in one of the darkest and most violent cartoons aimed at kids I've ever seen.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill have never been better as Batman and Joker.

3. Kick-Ass

It's nihilistic and cartoonishly violent, and not always in a good way, however this story of a teenaged kid in a real world trying to be a superhero is still alternately heartwarming and poignant, in its own weird way. Then there's Hit-Girl, one of the coolest characters ever put to screen.

2. The Dark Knight

I'll never call Christian Bale and Heath Ledger the definitive Batman and Joker (see Return of the Joker, above, for the true title-holders), but they do a damn good job, and this is an amazing movie. Walking out of the theatre the first time, I just remember thinking to myself, "Yeah, that was basically The Godfather of superhero movies". Ledger earned his Oscar, in a scary, scary performance.

1. The Incredibles

But while The Dark Knight is great, The Incredibles are the true champions in the superhero movie front. Pixars loving homage to the silver age of comics (plus a really sly remake of Watchmen aimed at kids) is a strong contender for the greatest superhero movie ever made. It's bright and colorful, while still morally complex, finding the balance of tones that most modern superhero films have completely forgotten even exists. It has some of the greatest animated performances by a perfectly eclectic cast (Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson), and yet the show is almost stolen by a 3-foot-tall designer of superhero costumes. Edna Mode, you are possibly the funniest character in a Pixar movie.

NO! CAPES!

God I love this movie.

Agree? Disagree? What are your favorite superhero movies? Sound off in the comments below!

And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Hello dear readers, and welcome back for the first list I've done since... let's see... August? Is that right? No, that can't be. Wait, no, yes, it is. Wow. Sorry about that. Time and book releases and holidays and various other excuses I can list here kind of got out of hand, didn't they?

Sad Smiley does not approve of such excuses.

Well, for the few of you who stuck around in the hopes of seeing another of my semi-comedic lists praising and/or disassembling various pieces of pop-culture, you're in luck! Because I'm back, and while I cannot claim to be better than ever (since I'm probably about the same as where I was last time), I intend to keep this ball rolling.

So, without further ado, let's get this February list going!

Being that I am a big fan of low-hanging fruit, I thought about dedicating this month's list to some of my favorite romantic pieces of pop-culture, what with that holiday whose name escapes me popping up at some point during this month. I think it's that one that involves shooting people in the heart with arrows.

Like this.

However, figuring this was a little too easy, I decided to give myself a bit of a challenge, and so I have decided to dedicate this month's celebration to my favorite anti-romantic characters in fiction. What makes a character anti-romantic? Well, to get on this list, it would help if you were utterly incompetent in the arts of love, are often mistaken for romantic when you are anything but, have extreme misfortune when love is concerned, or are an irredeemable cad.

As well, it'll help if I enjoy their particular fiction, so while I know a lot of great ones will be missing, these are the five that leaped to mind when this list came around. So, without further ado, let us get to entry # 5...

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Disney films, at least those made in the past 25 years (some exceptions included, yes, that means you Atlantis: The Lost Empire), and though I tend to favor a lot of their more recent stuff strictly for their more modern and well-rounded writing styles, it's hard not to enjoy the charms of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin or The Lion King. It's also hard not to laugh at how terribly dated and still a little behind the times their messages are.

Enter Beauty & The Beast

You may be our guest, but please do not be too loud a guest, lest our master murder us all!

Beauty & The Beast is the classic love story of a monster who kidnaps a young girl, holds her prisoner until she loves him, then proves that he was hot all along which is apparently A-OK with his former prisoner. Disney does a little better with it than you might expect (as a Best Picture nomination and the ability to still make me tear up at the end can attest), but the backbone of it still remains. While he proves that he can be a decent guy (not the can be part of that phrase) when he really tries, for much of the movie The Beast is a monster. He holds Belle prisoner, threatens to starve her if she won't spend time with him, and if his room full of tattered furniture is any indication, he's probably murdered a lot of his transformed servants.

But really, he's a sweet guy underneath.

You don't have to look far online for many articles about how messed up this movie is, from Beast's abusive nature to how Belle Stockholm Syndrome's herself into loving Beast, but not quite (note that she never goes far enough to actually learn his real name), so I'm going to take a different angle and go on my favorite messed-up trait of this otherwise fairy tale romance:

Unlike most love-in-spite-of-circumstances kinds of movies where two combative characters gradually fall in love, Beauty & The Beast throws in a fun little asterisk to this mystical curse that makes the Beast who he is: a time limit. See, he's destined to remain the Beast if he can't fall in love, and have someone reciprocate, by his 21st birthday. While ostensibly added to the story to give a sense of drama, since what's more dramatic than a ticking clock, this time limit really adds an asterisk to the Beast's love for Belle. He has mentally prepared himself for the last ten years (if "Be Our Guest" is any indication, and I choose not to disbelieve a word of that catchy, catchy song) to find a girl to fall in love with, and, well, it makes one wonder if his quick love for Belle comes entirely from genuine affection or if he's got some unconscious awareness that he needs to make this happen if he wants to be a human again.

So, in his way he's kind of trying to find a magical marriage green card, except this green card violently transforms his body instead of preventing him from getting kicked out of the country.

And yet, despite its twisted love story of kidnapping, torture and multi-directional Stockholm Syndrome that will likely involve the characters breaking up shortly after the end credits after they realize how messed up all this was (unless Belle's shallow enough to stick around now that he's hot and she's rich for having married him, which does kind of defeat the purpose of the movie), this movie still manages to be rather sweet and fun and a personal favorite. Damn you Disney for making this work somehow.

And it has Gaston, easily the funniest, and possibly one of the scariest, of Disney villains.

So dear readers, who else loves Beauty & The Beast in spite of (or perhaps because of) it's many flaws? Who are some of your favorite unromantic characters? Sound off in the comments below!

And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my month-long tribute to my favorite underrated villains of fiction. Already I have covered one of my favorite madmen of Batman's rogue's gallery (# 5), a genocidal madman hiding in a comedy aimed at families (# 4), one of the most devastating evil empires in Star Trek history (# 3) and one of Disney’s creepiest villains (# 2) but today I'm looking to draw attention to a Saturday morning cartoon villain with probably the greatest evil scheme to success ratio of, well, almost any villain:

Gargoyles was a weird, brilliant little show that Disney did in the early 90’s. Looking to get a lot of the prestige and attention that Warner Brothers was getting with Batman: The Animated Series, they created Gargoyles as a spiritual rival. It never got a tremendous amount of attention and only lasted three seasons, which may have had to do with the fickle nature of kids who watched Saturday morning cartoons and Disney’s insistence on creating a mythology heavy series that borrowed heavily from the King Arthur stories, Shakespeare and Celtic myths (with some gritty cop drama thrown in for good measure).

The fact that most of the protagonists looked like monsters apt to snatch you up and eat you might have had something to do with that too.

It’s since gained a cult following, and deservedly so, because while it may not have played well for kids, it’s a true treat as an adult, as its complex plotlines and mythology-heavy plots play well now for our serialized-television addled minds. It’s dark (including one early episode where a main character who gets shot by accident suffers from lasting consequences), it’s complex, and has a well written cast of main characters who are often forced to make some very gray decisions in a world that isn’t just about good and evil. And it starred the always awesome Keith David as the lead gargoyle, Goliath, which if you read my Dr. Facilier article, you'll know is A-OK by me.

And it had Demona, who probably guided many a young man in the 90’s through their pubescent bad girl phases.

Still, while tons of articles can be written about the complex characters and their relationships (and even more fanfic has certainly been written describing the intricacies of human-gargoyle sex), the character that fascinates me the most is none other than the main human antagonist of the series, David Xanatos.

Also known as “One of the Few Men Who Can Rock an Evil Beard and Ponytail Combo”.

Xanatos is a billionaire industrialist and criminal mastermind in the mold of Lex Luthor. He has infinite resources, a vast criminal empire, is obsessed with finding immortality, and often rocks a mech suit.

Though his black and red combo is far more flattering than Luthor's preferred green and purple.

Seeking a recipe for immortality, he imports a castle from Scotland to New York city and has it reassembled brick by brick on top of his supervillain tower, solely so he can resurrect the Gargoyles on top of it following the text of an ancient curse. He has robots, a team of animal-themed mercenaries, an honest to god mad geneticist, a hot redheaded wife/assassin, a stoic martial-artist manservant, and the Illuminati on his side. How much more of a classical supervillain could you get?

Okay, maybe Xanatos could have invested in a cape.

Xanatos separates himself from other villains of his ilk, mostly through his confidence. While all supervillains have to have a certain level of self-confidence (they are supervillains, after all), Xanatos is utterly unflappable. He never loses his cool, he always has a plan, and when his plans do go awry (as Saturday morning supervillain plans are wont to do), he still always finds a way to come out ahead of the game, as his plans were designed with optimal failure contingencies. Even when he loses, he wins. Even when he's sent to prison, he wins.This should annoy me. Perfect characters are one of those tropes that gets me more than any other. True characters are made of their flaws, not their perfection, and yet Xanatos manages to do this with such style and charisma that I can ignore most of this and just enjoy the level of wit and intelligence his character and schemes bring to the show.

Getting you to love me was all part of plan # 8472.

I should note that the voice work for the character is a major part of what makes him great. Like half of the recurring cast of Gargoyles, Xanatos is voiced by a Star Trek veteran, in this case Jonathan Frakes, a.k.a. Commander William Riker, a.k.a. Number One, a.k.a. Winner of Starfleet's Most Awesome Beard Contest. He voices Xanatos with a smoothness you would rarely find in his Saturday morning peers. He doesn't play Xanatos as a bad guy, campily exaggerating every sentence. Rather, he plays Xanatos as a competent, powerful businessman who probably considers himself the hero of the series, but is still willing to do anything. He keeps Xanatos cool and collected and makes him far more awesome than he should probably be.

Beard power, activate!

I'll admit that Xanatos was pretty much the inspiration of this list. My wife and I recently picked up Gargoyles for Christmas after I remembered enjoying it as a kid, and found it to be just an awesome show, all around. If you're ever looking for an odd, well-written animated show with some great characterizations and cool villains, check out Gargoyles.

So, dear readers, are there any other fans of Xanatos? Or Gargoyles for that matter (I'd be glad to hear that more fans of this one exist!)? Are there any other underrated villains you'd love to see get more respect? Sound off in the comments below! And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my month-long tribute to my favorite underrated villains of fiction. Already I have covered one of my favorite madmen of Batman's rogue's gallery (# 5), a genocidal madman hiding in a comedy aimed at families (# 4) and one of the most devastating evil empires in Star Trek history (# 3), but today I'm looking to draw attention to easily my favorite Disney villain of all time:

I have no idea why The Princess & The Frog isn't more popular. Maybe it had some trouble given its difficult pre-production and Disney's less than stellar track record with race relations. Maybe a more modern Disney fairy tale just didn't sit right for fans of mystical, far away lands. Or maybe it's because it's one of the last 2D animated Disney films in an increasingly 3D world.

I may only be in 2D, but I can still kick your ass.

It's a fun movie, and one of their best-written. It was the first of Disney's most recent trend of movies that are fair in the development of both the princess and the prince as well-rounded characters who both evolve throughout the course of the film (a trend I wholeheartedly support). The development of the relationship between Tiana and Prince Naveen is well paced and believable, and the supporting cast of characters is solid, fun, and relatable. And it has a half-decent soundtrack too.

And some good old-fashioned Disney slapstick insensitivity to the mentally and physically disabled.

But my favorite part of the film has always been in its villain, Dr. Facilier.

There have been a lot of great Disney villains, so I'm not going to blame anyone for how Dr. Facilier got lost in the shuffle. There are plenty of greats to choose from, I just find it a shame that he's given more attention. So, how has he ranked as my favorite Disney villain? Let me count the ways.

1. Facilier is one of the scariest Disney villains. While many Disney villains can easily be called evil, most of them are blustery and a little bumbling. Dr. Facilier is cold and calculating, very rarely letting his anger get the better of him as is most villains' folly. Top it off with his frequent communing with all sorts of dark magic, and he's one of the few Disney villains who I think could sneak into your nightmares.

2. He's got a great sidekick. While most heroes, and for that matter, villains in Disney movies are given sidekick characters that are basically there to sell stuffed animals. Dr. Facilier isn't having any of that. His sidekick is his own sentient shadow, which silently acts as a character of its own, fulfilling Facilier's will in some very cool, and very creepy, manners.

3. He's willing to go that extra villainous mile. (SPOILER ALERT) People die all the time in Disney movies. Those people are called parents and villains. There are some characters who are, by their very nature, immortal, namely the heroes and the sidekicks, because it would sure as hell be depressing if one of those wacky characters got killed, right? Well, Dr. Facilier apparently never got that memo. When attacked by Tiana's friend Ray, a Cajun-accented firefly, Dr. Facilier does what comes naturally to a truly evil villain. He swats Ray out of the air and steps on him, killing him. You can hear the crunch. It's awful. Sure, Ray gets a poignant death monologue a few moments later, but the sheer unexpectedness of this act makes it one of the most evil things pulled off by a Disney Villain.

Hardcore.

4. He's voiced by Keith David. This may be my own bias talking, since Keith David has always been one of my favorite character actors (from The Thing, There's Something About Mary and They Live, among many, many other places), but screw it, this is my list and I want to get it out here. Keith David's sweet, but powerfully deep voice (which he also put to expert use in Disney's short-lived cartoon Gargoyles) gives Facilier a smooth, seductive nature that makes him every bit as fun to listen to as he is to watch. And he has a very impressive singing voice, which brings me to my last point:

5. Seriously, just watch this video. If this doesn't sell you on his awesomeness, I don't know what will.

If you've never given The Princess & The Frog a chance, I'd say give it some consideration. It's a really fun one.

So, dear readers, are there any other fans of Dr. Facilier and The Princess & The Frog? Are there any other underrated villains you'd love to see get more respect? Sound off in the comments below!And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Author

Matt Carter is an author of Horror, Sci-Fi, and yes even a little bit of Young Adult fiction. Along with his wife, F.J.R. Titchenell, he is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel and lives in the usually sunny town of San Gabriel, CA.